This is not meant to be an anti nuggets post. More about how ridiculous Jokic is. If Jokic was out for the year due to injury how many wins would the Nuggets get? I feel like Jokic is worth like an additional 20 wins.
Let’s take the other 3 teams of Vegas top 4 title contenders
Boston: Take out Tatum and they are for sure making the playoffs
Milwaukee: Now that they have Dame I think they would for sure make the playoffs if Giannis was out for the year.
Phoenix: Whether it’s KD or Booker, if only one of them is out they should definitely still make the playoffs.
Good thing for Denver is Jokic is built like a horse
By highest in the NBA, most people mean “better than the best offense in the NBA”
Otherwise he 100% is not the best in the NBA. Like boban played 31 games and had a better net rating.
Moreover the nuggets play a lot more starter concentrated minutes than other teams. That leads to their starters having a better net rating, and their bench players have a worse net rating.
The warriors used to do the same thing. Every curry minute was really curry + Draymond on, and the offense stats were curry + Draymond off. Unsurprisingly, that will exaggerate your raw on off numbers